Karen Hara
An idealistic and driven agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As an NPC, she is portrayed by Joseph Rose. Description Appearance Karen Hara has medium-length black hair and brown eyes, and stands at 5'5". She frequently dresses in heavy clothes that make her seem slightly bigger and more powerful than she actually is. Personality Intelligent and highly dedicated, Karen is driven more by instinct than by any actual data. By all appearances, her natural instincts are very keen, resulting in her gut reactions nearly always being right. This has made her into the sort of person likely to leap before she looks, and her fellow agents at the FBI have noted that she sometimes stubbornly clings to whatever presuppositions she may have come to before the case began. The fact that these presuppositions are often right does nothing to ease the concern, or jealousy, of her peers. Biography Background After obtaining a degree in Computer Science and working in the private sector for three years, Karen Hara successfully managed to get into the FBI, passing her examination with flying colors and spending her two-year probationary period under the guidance of Special Agent Leonard Armstrong. During this time, the two of them began investigating George Cochran, believing him to be embezzling from Animus Technologies. Even though she was still young and inexperienced, their plan involved her going undercover to find evidence of Cochran's crimes. However, possibly due to her inexperience, they didn't manage to find enough evidence to be confident of a conviction, so the case never went to trial. Furious at her own failure, Karen has been pursuing George Cochran for his embezzling schemes for quite some time. She believes that she did, in fact, find sufficient evidence to convict him, but that his connections (and wealth) were such that he avoided prison time, largely through copious bribes. In any case, no one was willing to testify against him. She also suspects him of other crimes, but has even less proof. She also been keeping an eye on the recent crime wave sweeping through the west coast. While her boss, Donald Moorcrest, believes these to be isolated incidents, a spontaneous uptick in crime that will perpetuate itself (like a trend), Karen believes that this is, instead, primarily the work of one individual, the mysterious Midnight Killer. Though ridiculed for her gut feeling, as the crimes have little to connect them and the murders even less, she is adamant in her belief, and uses the excuse of wrapping up the George Cochran case to get in the area and investigate the Midnight Killer’s existence in the hopes of proving her theory. Relationships Donald Moorcrest Her superior in the FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. While he believes her to be a capable agent, Moorcrest is very much a traditionalist, valuing hard facts much more than gut instinct. Leonard Armstrong Previously Karen's mentor within the FBI during her probationary period, Leonard Armstrong taught her everything she knows, fostering her drive to win and her need to act based on instinct. Recently, he has retired from the FBI, running a successful campaign for the governorship of Oregon, his home state. Whenever Karen is stuck on a case, she always turns to Armstrong for advice, which he always seems to find the time to give. George Cochran Karen's first target, and the source of much of her current frustration, as she was unable to build a successful case against him. Zachary Quantrell In order to gather evidence against Cochran, Karen went undercover as a Computer Hardware Engineer at Animus Technologies. While she and Armstrong never told Quantrell who exactly they were targeting, they did bring him into the loop, and he gave them a great deal of support during their investigation. Her relationship with Quantrell has been strained slightly, due to her lack of hard evidence, but during her time at Animus Technologies he saw that she was intelligent, intuitive, and a dedicated worker, even if it was just for a case. As such, he has stated that he has great respect for her. The Midnight Killer Though most consider the Midnight Killer to be a rumor, or an urban legend, Karen believes he is real, and the source of the recent crime wave along the West Coast.